Week 2 with Maxers

I would just like to say how awesome this week has been so far. I was a little nervous to jump into a new routine with no helpers here, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. Here is a typical morning at our house....
We wake up to Max being hungry anywhere between 7-7:30am. The boys hear noises and come climb into our bed and snuggle for awhile before I say, "We HAVE GOT to get up and get ready to GOO!! It's already 8!!" So then we throw some clothes on Briggs and Finn, pour them bowls of cereal, and try to get ourselves dressed and eat breakfast at the same time. Then it's out the door with all 5 of us.
We drop off Ted at the lab so he can write all morning. From there, I either drive Finn to school if it's a Tues. or Thurs. or we come back home and figure out what kid activity is going on downtown. Finn gets picked up at noon, and then we have lunch and naps. Or if it's a Mon/Wed/Fri I have to drop off Briggs at school at 1pm, and then we come home for naps until we have to pick him up at 4:30.
Naptime...my favorite time of the day:) Ted is usually home by this time, so we sometimes get our dishes done during nap time. I sometimes lay down for a half hour, then get up and practice fiddling for 15 minutes. My teacher told me to practice in little spurts so I don't learn something wrong and then have to re-learn it at our next lesson. This week I'm really working on my left hand and finger positions. It's very difficult to focus on so many things at the same time, but it was encouraging to hear my teacher say that I had perfected my right bow hand since we last met.
Our evenings are fairly chill. This week, our church has been bringing us meals which has been a huge blessing. We've enjoyed tacos and chicken alfredo leftovers for our lunches too. Then we usually watch a movie in our jammies and tuck the boys in to bed. Ted and I get to read our books and hang out after Max goes to bed. And he's been getting up usually twice during the night, which isn't too bad.

Max had a weight check today. He is 9lbs. 4.5 oz. That's quite a bit since a week ago when he was down to 7lb 14oz. I guess you can say he's a good eater!
Yesterday both Ted and I participated with Briggs at preschool. We were exhausted (except Max, who slept the entire 4 hours) after we had spent the afternoon with a group of 20-some preschoolers. Those teachers deserve a raise!
Finn started off this week being grouchy, but has gotten happier since. I think he's finally realizing that this baby is here to stay. On the other hand, his teachers at school say he's been a real sweetheart this week.
I was able to get a massage one night this week. It's just so nice to be able to lay flat on my stomach again. I came back home feeling fuzzy-brained and floaty.
Ted tried to launch another rocket engine this evening, but ran out of igniters before he could light it.
The gnome below is a piece that I'm entering in the Love Show at the Percolator in February. I finished his eyebrows today, and he's ready to go!
Fare Thee Well,
Jaylyn

Needle felted love gnome, made from wool and pipe cleaner

Baby falling asleep

Max at 4 days old

Our first week home with Max

Max is 6 days old today. I wanted to jot down a few things from our first week home with him. So far he is awesome! I couldn't ask for a better baby. Since that first night, he has continued to sleep rather well for a newborn. I got up once with him last night. And by "got up" I mean rolled over and let him nurse while I continued to sleep. It's been really nice having him in the co-sleeper right next to my side of the bed. We're all sleeping pretty great this week, even the bigger boys.

Speaking of Briggs and Finn, they are in love with their new baby. Briggs is especially proud of Max, and volunteers to hold him on the couch while I get Finn dressed or help him in the bathroom. Both boys have been going to preschool this whole week, and going out to different places around town with Grammy Carolyn.

I haven't had much time to practice my fiddle, but I did learn Mary Had a Little Lamb and Twinkle Twinkle yesterday. I'm not so much worrying about playing the correct beat as I am with just hitting the correct notes and playing a nice strong sound. I've been getting better playing the A string, which was giving me trouble last week. For some reason I had a hard time not hitting the D string with the bow at the same time.

Ted has made lots of progress on his thesis these last few days. He had many meetings with his advisor and other faculty on his committee. Sounds like things are going well, and everything is right on track to where it should be.

Ted's dad, Scott, arrived this morning. We're going to fire up the grill this afternoon and cook steaks since it's so darn nice out! Even my chickens must think it's spring, as one is laying every day again. I have a hunch that it is my young Silver Laced Wyandotte, Pretzel.

Hope to keep this blog a little bit more up-to-date this year. I noticed that the last entry besides Max's birth was from 2013! Oh my...sorry everyone.

Fare Thee Well, (I decided that this is my new farewell)
Jaylyn

Max Wren Morehouse

Our third son was born on Saturday morning, January 10th. We waited so long for this little guy to get here! Here's his story:
On Friday night, I crawled into bed feeling frustrated with my situation. I was hours away from being 42 weeks pregnant.  Like the past 3 weeks, I went to bed having contractions but didn't think much of them. It was 2am when I woke up feeling pretty uncomfortable. I laid there for an hour trying to fall back asleep, but no luck. So I got in the bathtub and thought about what I should do. Something told me this time was different than all the other false alarms. I got out, woke Ted up, and told him that we should call our babysitter.
Danielle got to the house ten minutes later (She's so great!) We grabbed the suitcase and drove to the hospital. It was 4am when we checked in. I kind of felt like we may have come too early, but it worked out okay because it took awhile to get upstairs to a room.
The nurse checked to see how far I was dilated at 4:45am. I was between a 3-4, so the same as I had been earlier in the week. By that time though, I was starting to have the urge to hold my breath when a contraction hit, so I had hope that we would be staying! She said she wanted to check me again in a few hours to see if anything had progressed. In the meantime, I got in the bathtub and Ted got the 70's folk music playing. The contractions at this point weren't too bad. Just being in hot water and floating around really made it seem like I was just having bad period cramps. Sure enough, by 7am, I was dilated to a 6. My doctor gave the go ahead to stay. I tried the birthing ball for awhile, but felt too squished. I mostly stayed in the tub and had Ted in charge of filling it with hot water. I got super tired and somehow, even though the contractions were getting intense, I was able to almost sleep in between them.
I decided I had had enough tub time and wanted to get things going. Ted reminded me that the more upright I could be, the quicker things would happen. So I tried standing beside the bed, held the rails, and just tried rocking my hips back and forth. The nurse came in around 9:15am and I asked her if she could check for progress. I was between a 7-8 and having a lot of bloody show. (Sorry for the mental image, but this is a birth story after all) Boy, did that stir things up though. I immediately felt the contractions hitting harder and I had Ted run out to the hall after her because I felt like I was going into the transition phase. I didn't think it was time to push exactly, but I felt like it was going to be very very close to that time. I told the nurse to call my doctor because I just wanted to get this thing over with!

Contraction beginning...

Dr. Kimuri walked in the room at 10:00. She told me, "As soon as I break your water the baby is going to be right there and you can push him out". I said, "Do it!" So my water was broke at 10:04. I felt a gush of fluid and everything move downward. The baby's head was right there. I guess his pulse dropped really fast and the nurse was saying something to the doctor about it and I got really scared. I made it through 2 hard contractions that were no longer cushioned by that bag of water before saying, "Okay, I'm pushing now!" They weren't even ready with all their gear that they're supposed to put on, but they yelled across the room that it was fine to start pushing.
All that I remember during these next few minutes was that Ted somehow had moved to the other side of me, I looked down at my stomach and it was deflating like a balloon, and someone saying that the baby was crowning. I guess I pushed 4 times total, and I looked down and saw our baby and said, "YAY HE'S OUT!!"
The doctor immediately put him on my chest. He took a little while to take his first breath, but then started crying. His hands and feet were really purple- black colored. (Poor circulation like his mom) After he started warming up and his cord had been clipped/clamped by Ted, everyone was taking guesses on his weight. I guessed over 9 lbs, Dr. Kimuri guessed 7 1/2 lbs. The nurse put him on the scale and we were both wrong.

Max Wren Morehouse
Born 10:12am on Saturday, January 10th, 2015
Weighing 8lbs. 10 oz
Measuring 20 1/2 inches long

He has just captured our hearts these last 2 days. Such a sweet baby. He looks so much like Briggs right now with his little mouth and narrow lips. He has cheeks like Finn had too. Max's hair is looking strawberry blonde right now. I'm crossing my fingers that he's going to be my red-haired baby that I long for!
We came home yesterday afternoon. My parent's and Jared's family came to visit us. Last night Max slept for 6 hours straight, giving us a nice long stretch of sleep too!